Is this actually a “fairly common practice“?

Police say Smith admitted using the Wi-Fi signal from the home of Richard Dinon, who had noticed Smith sitting in an SUV outside Dinon’s house using a laptop computer.

I mean, if the signal came into your house and you took advantage of it, that’s one thing, with its own ethical quandries. But actually going out of your way to use someone else’s signal? Common? Aside from the wrongness of it, it would be a pain, wouldn’t it?